Meryl Streep Addresses Violence Against Women in a Speech at the International Press Freedom Awards

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Meryl Streep said that she “once played dead and waited until the blows stopped” as the actress opened up regarding her experience of being “beaten” during a speech that was addressing violence against women.

“I do know something about real terror,” said the Devil Wear’s Prada star to the audience at the International Press Freedom Awards that was held in New York City.

“The two times in my life when I was threatened and dealt with real physical violence, I learned something about life that I wouldn’t have known otherwise, and I was lucky because my instincts served me well.”

Streep stated: “In one instance I played dead and waited until the blows stopped. Watching like people say you do from 50 feet above where I was beaten.

“And in the second instance someone else was being abused, and I just went completely nuts and went after this man. Ask Cher, she was there. And the thug ran away, it was a miracle.”

The actress continued: “I was changed by these events on a cellular level. Because women know something particular about coming to the danger place.

“We come to it disadvantaged through the many millennia preceding our present moment, and because of our vulnerabilities we anticipate danger, we expect it, we’re hyper-alert to it, we have the 360 on the whole room.

“We have they say measurably more acute hearing, we have better sense of smell, we notice details, what people are wearing, their ticks and peculiarities. This comes in very handy in investigative journalism and also in acting.”

Meryl Streep said that there had never been a “more exciting, exhausting and dangerous time” to become an investigative journalist, especially for those women who go through a “special cocktail of venom and ridicule that is always tinged with sexual threat.”

The actress has previously spoken out against “disgraceful” Harvey Weinstein after allegations of sexual assault and misconduct from numerous women in Hollywood.

“The disgraceful news about Harvey Weinstein has appalled those of us whose work he championed, and those whose good and worthy causes he supported. The intrepid women who raised their voices to expose this abuse are our heroes,” said Streep.

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